


A Phoenix By Whose Death Another Phoenix Life Gave Breath

by Falafel_Waffel



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Tumblr: promptsinpanem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 10:25:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falafel_Waffel/pseuds/Falafel_Waffel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The usually overlooked love of Jane Seymour and King Henry VIII, Everlark style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Phoenix By Whose Death Another Phoenix Life Gave Breath

It started simply, as many romances tend to do; simple, shy smiles during mass, a too deep curtsy as she passed the King’s table at dinner. King Peter, or Peeta, as the Court knew him, was known around the world for his taste in the exotic and women.

Lady Katniss Everdeen came to serve under Catherine of Aragon when she was barely fourteen. She watched with her sad, grey eyes as the Queen fell from the King’s favor as one of his many harlots wound her fingers around his blonde curls. She stayed with the Queen until the end, sitting by the fire and sewing with the aging woman who just couldn’t give her Lord a son.

Lady Everdeen wasn’t much for words. She would pat the worrisome woman’s knee and try to distract her with simple conversation about mass or the weather.  She avoided talking about Princess Mary, as it was a sore subject.

The young lady-in-waiting watched as the Queen was removed from her home and replaced by a sultry brunette who tossed away the traditional Gable Hoods Queen Catherine, now Dowager Princess Catherine, preferred her ladies wear for the more revealing French Hoods. Queen Anne held her head high as her brown hair peeked out in front of her hood.

Katniss would push hers forward, hiding her long dark hair. She deemed herself the plainest of Queen Anne’s ladies, though it was impossible to remain so when the low square necklines invaded Court. Katniss found herself tugging at the neckline of her gown, constantly wishing she could wear something more modest, especially with all the men who visited the Queen’s apartments.

Queen Anne’s head was never higher than during the nine months she paraded around, patting her rounding belly saying that she was carrying the King’s son. Lady Everdeen knelt at mass every day praying she was right, that Queen Anne could just do her duty and give the King his one desire.

Katniss thought about his vibrant smile, the way his bright blue eyes would light up at the very mention of his future son. Peeta never gave Anne the innocent loving smile he would give his first wife. He never came to her quarters just to rest his head in her lap, or to have her run her fingers through his curls.

After her prayers, Katniss would get up on her stiff legs and adjust her top. It was the same for close to six months, until the day the King entered the Sanctuary. “Your majesty!” Katniss gasped, grabbing her skirt and curtsying deep, cursing her exposed cleavage and pushed back hood.

“You were praying…” he said quietly, “For the Queen to give me a son…”

Katniss nodded. “Yes, your majesty. However, it is not just I, but all of England. We pray at morning, noon and night for God to give you a son…”

Katniss watched as his lips upturned into a smile. The King took a step towards her and Katniss shivered as his hand brushed her cheek. She did not dare move; this was the King of England. She didn’t flinch when his soft lips brushed hers. They were sweet and innocent. Katniss tried not to overthink it. It was well known that the King would take a mistress when his Queen began her lying in.

But Peeta never approached her, though he began praying with her every day. Queen Anne, unfortunately, did not produce the son her Lord so rightfully deserved.  Two years passed and Princess Elizabeth grew, but still no son. Katniss continued practicing her embroidery, pushing her hood forward and tugging up her dress as it became clear the Boleyn’s were falling from the King’s favor. Peeta was a kind and generous man, but he could only handle so much.

The King began doting on Lady Everdeen. It started simply, just as their romance. But instead of small smiles and watchful gazes, it was bolts of the finest silks that were sent away to make more modest dresses. The Queen wasn’t pleased though Lady Everdeen’s only crimes, if they could be called crimes, were praying with the King that the Queen could just birth a live son.

More of her family came to Court, her younger sister to wait on the Princess, her father to join the King’s Privy Council. Queen Anne was displeased, but Lady Katniss just kept her mouth shut and kept on with her embroidery as the Queen held lavish parties in her apartments. Katniss grew to hate parties, though the Queen’s head Lady, Mistress Effie Trinket, tried to urge the quiet lady-in-waiting to dance, or play cards with one of the gentlemen.

Katniss scrunched up her face and put away her embroidery, leaving the Queen’s chambers for the quiet serenity of the sanctuary. “Forgive me, Sire,” Katniss curtsied deep and attempted to back out of the sanctuary, flushed and embarrassed, absolutely terrified of her King’s budding temper. A lady-in-waiting doesn’t pray with the King unless he chooses to join her.

“Lady Everdeen, come, join me.” Katniss knelt beside the King cautiously. She clasped her hands together and they exchanged a small smile. The King left before she was through but was waiting outside for her. “M’lady, please join me for a walk…”

The King offered her his arm. “But, Sire, it is night time…” she told him. He just smiled in return.

“Ah, true… then we shall let the stars light our way.” They walked through the garden. New life was springing out of the ground, as May Day was approaching. The King looked at the maiden, this perplexing woman. The King held the attention of everyone at his side, but Lady Everdeen’s gaze was to the stars, her arm still linked with his.

She pulled away and he missed the warmth of the young woman. “Lady Katniss…” She knelt to the ground, an arduous task in her skirts and corset.

She looked up and smiled, holding a single yellow flower. “Isn’t it lovely?” she sniffed at the dandelion.

The King gave her a strange look. “It’s a weed…”

She looked at him, confused. “A weed to some, but after the long winters what is the first thing to sprout from the ground? A message from God that the dark days are over…” She walked back to him. “May I, Your Grace?” She looked up, gaze hooded by thick dark eyelashes.

“You may…” the King murmured as Katniss tucked the flower in his jacket. He was too busy wondering what the color of her hair was, her eyebrows tweezed so thin. He placed his hands on her hood, “May I?”

Katniss blushed at the King’s request. “You may…” Gently, he slid the rigid orange silk hood from her head, and she nervously ran her hands through her hair trying to untangle the knots. She didn’t need the King to know that she woke up with just enough time to splash water on her face and have a servant tie her into her corset and help her pull on her dress before the moody, argumentative, pregnant Queen began her reign of terror.

She looked away, feeling the cool April breeze run through her scalp. “May I kiss you?” Katniss snapped her head to study the King. She was a lady of the court, not some harlot. “You are the King of England…” she felt slip from her mouth, the statement hung in the air for barely a second before his hands tangled in her long, dark hair. The King’s lips were soft and gentle like they had been in the sanctuary just before Elizabeth was born.

He brought his hand behind her back trying to pull her close, but she pulled away. He was angry at first, how dare she? Katniss took her hood from him, placing it back on her head. The King refused to tell her that strands of dark hair were still free of the hood. “Your Grace,” she curtsied, “I am very tired, I believe it is time for me to retire.

“Let me escort you back…” he murmured. They walked back in an uncomfortable silence, him holding the door of the Queen’s Apartments open. “Thank you for your company, Lady Katniss.” He took her hand and kissed her knuckles, “It’s truly rare to find such an _agreeable_ maid anymore,” he snapped as the Queen emerged from her chambers. The King would spend his night in the Queen’s quarters, thinking of the soft lips and raven hair of the quiet lady who seemed to value her modesty more than the King’s approval. At first, it infuriated the King and he took it out on the Queen, who didn’t seem to mind at all. But then, something changed. Between the temper of Anne and her constant pushing into political matters, matters that shouldn’t concern a woman he was growing tired of, and quickly. Her failure to give him the son he deserved and behavior of late was enough to drive anyone insane.

While the King was pretending his Queen was Lady Katniss, she was trying to remember the warmth of his lips on hers, the cold April breeze through her messy hair. The King asked Lady Katniss to walk with him every night until he received a letter from his first wife, Catherine. Katniss found him in the great hall just past midnight, crying. She didn’t say anything, instead she sat next to the King, afraid to touch, afraid to speak. She just sat with her legs folded under her. She spent the time smoothing out her skirts, until Peeta grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to him. He took a deep breath of her hair before standing, hauling her off the ground. She didn’t have a chance to fix her gown as he dragged her to his quarters.

“Your Majesty?” she asked.

“Leave us!” his voice echoed in the room and his servants scurried out leaving the King with a nervous, confused maiden, bunching up her skirts in her sweaty palms.

She prayed that he would let her go. He was married, she was his wife’s lady-in-waiting. He was the King of England, she was just a lady from Wiltshire. Her lip quivered; she had her virtue to protect, but this was the King of England. Many of her fellow maids would throw themselves at him. He was the most handsome prince of all Christendom, but the thought of giving her maidenhead before her marriage night was appalling to Katniss. Her stomach flipped and twisted, turning her green. Instead of kissing her, or trying to disrobe her, he just sat down and stared. There was a cruelty in his actions towards his late wife, but she knew the King loved her.

“Sire?” He just stared at the wall as if she said nothing. “Excuse me, sire,” his head snapped to her. “Is there anything I can get for you?”

He spread his legs and she gulped. The other ladies gossiped about sinful actions, and she knew what he wanted. “Please remove your hood, Lady Katniss.” She did as she was told without thinking and let the garment fall to the ground. He stood from the chair, moving it closer to the fire. Katniss just watched him, unsure of his actions. “Please, sit.”

She did, and sat awkwardly for a minute while listening to him search for something. Drawers were opened, only to be closed roughly a few seconds later. Without warning, Katniss felt the wide teeth of a comb running through her unbrushed dark hair. The King didn’t need the flesh of a woman to quell his despair, Katniss learned that night. He needed the meaningless, mindless, unnecessary task of brushing a maid’s hair.

The King’s grief could only be overshadowed by the Queen’s joy. She was by his side every minute, all her fears gone now that even Rome couldn’t deny their marriage.

Soon came May Day where he walked with his Queen hand-in-hand, his eyes never leaving the young maid as she danced around the May Pole with her visiting sister, Primrose. He watched Katniss walk with her head held high to the archery butts. “May I?” she asks. The King let go of the Queen’s hand as she went to talk to her father.

Peeta watched, amused as Katniss nocked her arrow. She brought her arm up to aim and gripped the string. It seemed as if all the celebration stopped to watch the woman. She pulled back as if the draw weight was nothing and let her arrow fly. She was a little off, but for a woman it was impressive, very impressive, actually much better than some of the men at the archery butts. Katniss curtsied before she took her sister’s hand, leading her away.

The Queen noticed how her lady captured the King, but luckily she had no worry when it came to the security of her marriage. She was with child.

May led straight into a heated summer and the Queen’s belly swelled with what would hopefully be the King’s son. Her swelling belly, though, led to a swelling ego. Where she bragged and began pestering the King to start finding suitable wives for their unborn son, Katniss was a breath of fresh air for him. She didn’t busy herself with politics, didn’t want lavish things and jewels, though he gave them to her without question. The Queen demanded balls, masquerades, and feasts in honor of their son. Katniss was content with walks through the garden. She wasn’t as well educated as Catherine and Anne in the traditional sense, but knew more about the flowers and trees surrounding his many palaces than anyone he had seen before. He would take her riding deep in the woods and not stop until the horses needed water.

He helped her out of her boots and watched as she pulled up the skirts of her riding habit and waded through the shallow water. He panicked when she disappeared barefoot into the thicket, though she came back a few minutes later, her hands stained with berry juice. “Here,” she smiled, but he was skeptical. “They’re not poison,” she chuckled before popping a deep purple berry into her mouth. “They grew around Wolf Hall. I had a nanny who taught me how to survive through the hard times…”

The King snorted and popped a berry in his mouth. Hard times? How could she have to worry about hard times when food was so plentiful? The sun was high in the sky when he rested his head in her lap. She brushed back his curls, “I have something for you…” he whispered, grabbing at bag he had rested against a tree.

Katniss just stared as he handed her a small wooden box. Inside was a string of pearls with a stone that looked like a tear hanging between her collarbones, wrapped in a love letter. She wore the necklace every day and kept the letter tucked in her bodice at all times. The Queen had already suspected something was happening between her husband and the maid. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the pendant around Katniss’ neck.

“What a lovely stone…” the Queen murmured, reaching for the necklace. Katniss backed away. It was her gift, as a blush crept to her cheek and Queen Anne’s eyes narrowed. She had nothing to fear though, not the maid or her husband’s history of infidelity, as she was carrying the King’s son.

Peeta called Katniss to his chambers every evening and Anne’s jealousy only grew. One afternoon, as the sun set, Peeta sat Katniss in his lap. “May I kiss you…” he whispered in her ear. Chills ran up and down her spine, and her skin tingled. Over the past few months, her admiration for her King had blossomed into a romantic love. She loved being by his side.

He never forced himself on her, or asked for anything she wasn’t willing to give. “Well… you are the King of England…” Katniss whispered.

Peeta smiled and held her close. “Lady Katniss, I’ve grown to love you…” His voice was so sad.

“And I, you…” she whispered. “I keep your love letters tucked in my bodice every day, close to my heart.”

He leaned in and kissed her lips sweetly just as the door swung open. “What is this!?” the Queen roared as she crossed the room. Katniss was ripped off the King’s lap, her stiff corset making it impossible for her to catch herself. “I am carrying your son!” she screams, “And I find you here with Mistress Everdeen!?”

Katniss picks herself off the ground, “You!” In her rage, the pregnant Queen kicked the lady until the King pulled her away.

“Anne! Stop this!”

“You whore!” she screamed. “You worthless whore! I want you out of my apartments! I want you out of my Court!”

Bruised and gasping for breath, Katniss ran from the room. She held her waist as she packed everything she owned into two trunks under the Queen’s watchful eye. As she slammed them shut, the Queen came very close, hooking her finger into the string of pearls Peeta gave her. A quick yank and the little spheres bounced across the floor. On instinct, Katniss went to pick them up earning a shove from the Queen. “Leave them. A _thief_ like you would just steal them…”

Two servants came to carry Katniss’ belongings, but instead they brought them to the apartments once owned by the Boleyn’s. As she undressed for the night, a single pearl fell out of her corset. Katniss picked up the small white sphere from the ground and rolled it between her fingers, smiling. She knew their love was wrong since he was married, but it didn’t change the fact that it was honestly and truly love. Katniss fell asleep her first night in the apartments, clutching the pearl to her chest. 

As it would happen, a son wasn’t in the cards for Queen Anne and King Peeta. According to one of her Ladies, Lady Cartwright, the Queen miscarried and blamed the King.

He kept Katniss’ company more and more, though never pressed her for her virginity. He gave her Lady Cartwright and Lady Undersee to help her dress and serve her, which left her without her ears in the Queen’s apartments.

Peeta began telling Katniss how much he wanted to marry her, and believed God himself would bless their union and gift them with sons. Katniss just smiled. She didn’t particularly want children, but the thought made her corset tighten until she couldn’t breathe. Who was she to deny a king?

Katniss watched as Queen Anne fell. She watched from a window as they took her to the Tower, accused of treason and adultery.

Many gentlemen close to the King lost their heads for Queen Anne, including her brother, George Boleyn.

The day of Anne’s execution, Peeta brought the finest dressmaker in all of England to design her wedding gown. It was a tiring task to sew a royal wedding gown, but eleven days later, Katniss and Peeta stood at the altar. Her tight corset and layers and layers of skirts made it difficult to enjoy their wedding feast.

“Is something bothering you, my love?” Peeta asked as she picked at her food.

Katniss just smiled, “I think my ladies tightened my corset a little too much…”

He leaned in and kissed just below her ear. “Then perhaps we should hurry to get you out of it…”

She shivered. There was no denying him now, no wanting to protect her virtue. She was married, and not only that, she was married to the King of England.

Her ladies stripped her of her wedding gown and left her in nothing but her chemise and helped her into a robe before leading her into the King’s bedroom. The priest went to bless the consummation of their marriage, but the King stopped him.

Katniss was anticipating the worst; painful, bloody, and expected to be ripped in two. He never removed her chemise, instead running his large hand up her shaking thigh. “Please… be still my love…”

Their eyes locked and she cried when he didn’t wait for her to adjust to the foreign body inside her. He kissed away the tears and waited while apologizing over and over. Katniss didn’t understand why women talked so much about how ‘pleasurable’ sex was. It was painful, uncomfortable, and awkward. After her husband was finished, though, he held her close and whispered ‘I love you’ over and over.

Months passed by and the only time she wasn’t called to Peeta’s bed was during her monthly courses. On those days, he would still lay with her but expect nothing. It was becoming clearer to Katniss why the ladies gossiped about intercourse. As her body got used to it, she found it enjoyable. Every time she felt like she was working to something and after Peeta finished, he would roll off her and rub between her legs until she lost control and couldn’t help but scream his name. That was something she could get used to.

Traditionally, the Queen would call her husband ‘Majesty’, though Peeta insisted his third wife used his name. Though most days, he would have a loving smile at the sight of her and could only call her wife as if he was amazed by this. Katniss just curtsied and called him husband.

The anger and stress caused by political unrest and his first two marriages seemed like distant memories. Katniss wasn’t as diplomatic as Queen Catherine or as charismatic as Queen Anne, until the King asked her to receive political officials. She knew he watched and listened as they wished her luck on conceiving, though she wasn’t having much luck on that front. Instead, Katniss focused on the relationship between the Lady Mary, Peeta’s eldest daughter, and her father.  Though he didn’t want to hear it, whenever she brought up reconciliation she would send her gifts. She even sent money to her predecessor’s daughter, Elizabeth, for clothes.

One day though, before they had been married a year, she watched as the King and Mary put their differences aside, though her happiness was cut short.

“I wish to see the Lady Mary at Court,” she told her husband after swallowing. “She’s so lovely and virtuous, surely you want to show her off?”

Peeta said nothing and just stared at his food, out the window, or at his wife’s ladies. “Husband?” she asked, reaching for his hand. “Why will you not look at me?”

It took him a minute. “I’m disappointed in you, dear wife.”

Katniss pulled away her hand. “But… But why, majesty? What have I done?”

He smirked. “You have not yet conceived. It has been a year,” Peeta’s love for Katniss was great, but his need for a son was far greater. Katniss knew she could very well lose her head if she didn’t conceive soon.

She didn’t know what else she could do. Every night she went to her husband’s bed, and every night they tried to conceive. Katniss found herself in the sanctuary more and more, praying that God could just give her a son.

She wrote her sister, begging her to come to Court. During the more stressful nights as Katniss waited to start bleeding, Primrose would read to her, hold her and promise that God was just waiting.

It wasn’t long though before Katniss missed her monthly courses, and after two months, she knew. Though she knew her neck was safe pending the child in her belly was a boy, the fear of birth overshadowed the joy.

Katniss knew her husband was disappointed with her and the length of time it took her conceive, but he still came to her bed and ate with her every night. “You seem to favor the quail…” he murmured, choosing to sit next to her, maybe he knew. Her breasts had swollen some and the slight swell peeked above the top of her dress. Peeta rested his head on her shoulder as she placed another bite in her mouth. “You’ve requested it the last four nights…”

She just smiled. “I simply can’t get enough of it. I crave it morning, noon and night…”

Peeta sat up straight. “Wife, I believe you are with child…”

She rested her hands on her still flat stomach. It would be months until the telltale swell of their son would form. “Majesty, I am…”

He pulled her to her feet and held her close. “Dear wife, we are truly blessed. There will be feasts, balls… rebels aside.” Katniss had been putting the rebels’ threats out of her mind, as politics were not her business; military action was something she couldn’t busy herself with. Her job was to give her husband a son.

They laid together every night as her body began to change. Discomfort plagued her night and day, but he held her close even as she begged for him to keep the religious institutions around his kingdom. Peeta just stroked his pregnant Queen’s hair and reminded her that though he loved her more than Catherine and Anne combined, she should be reminded what happened to Anne and not spoil his love. Katniss kept her mouth shut from then on. Mary was back at court, Prim was by her side and would hopefully be there during the birth of her son.

Katniss cried the first time she felt her baby move inside her. She locked herself in her room and sobbed until Prim and Mary pulled her out, telling her it was natural, that it was a good sign. Peeta showered his Queen in gifts and affection, sitting with her as the sun set. She would run her fingers through his blonde curls as they discussed names. He hoped their son had his mother’s grace, but she wished he had the King’s strong heart.

“We’ll take him deep in the woods, as we did before we were wed… there is so much I wish to show him…” Katniss whispered as Peeta’s hand rested on her stomach. “He will learn to ride, hunt, and learn to rule from the most handsome prince in all of Christendom.”

“With a mother as lovely as you…” Peeta started, feeling their child kick against his hand. “Our son will surely overshadow me.”

Katniss gasped. “The thought… But please, you may continue the flattery… It’s good for the baby.”

Nothing could have prepared Katniss for labor. Her sister and the Lady Mary stayed by her side as the hours passed by. Her first day of labor, according to the midwives, was uneventful, as was her second. Doctors came on her third day as the contractions continued and she felt her strength leave her body, “What is that?” she asked in a fearful voice.

“My lady, you must not give up. You must press on.” Katniss was growing weaker as the second day of her labor ended. Even the King’s physicians couldn’t understand why such a healthy woman, and such an easy pregnancy was leading to a deadly labor.  

“I wish I could see him…” Katniss whispered. “I wish I could see my love…”

Prim stroked her sister’s hair away from her face. “You will see him when your son, when Edward is in your arms. He will run to your side.”

Katniss smiled as Mary pulled something from the folds of her dress, her mother’s rosary. “My lady…” Katniss didn’t hesitate, she held Mary’s hand and prayed that God would end everything soon.

In the city, the commons prayed for the Queen to give birth, as did Peeta.

“I believe she would love you, as I do,” Mary told Katniss. “And I believe she is here with us today.”

Katniss tried to smile as another contraction hit her, each one worse than the last.

On the morning of the third day, physicians came into the room to examine the Queen. Katniss watched as they examined their tools. She knew what this meant. If her son wasn’t born soon, they would cut the baby from her belly, surely killing her.

“My lady, you must not give up!” Mary pleaded, seeing the tools. Katniss tried to stay strong, tried to will the baby from her belly. After what felt like an eternity, there was a loud cry in the room, not from Katniss but from her son, Prince Edward.

It wasn’t soon after the birth and Peeta first held his son that Katniss’ fever set in. The physicians tried everything, but there was no surviving childbed fever.

“Katniss…” Peeta murmured when it became clear Katniss wouldn’t leave bed alive. “All of you out!” he commanded the guards, her ladies, and even his own daughter. “Out! Now!” He didn’t know how much longer he had left with his wife, his love, his Queen, but he would spend every minute with her.

Even in her weakened state, Katniss jumped when the chair slid across the floor and her husband sat next to her. His fingers laced with hers, though she couldn’t reciprocate the gesture, “My love…” she whispered, “I am not long for this world…”

“No…” Tears welled in his eyes. “No, you cannot go. Just because you have given me everything you promised does not mean you can go!” he pleaded as if words could change her fate.

“I will always be by your side… husband…” She tried to sit up, but her infection plagued body and feverish mind wouldn’t let her. Instead, she reached her hand forward, pressing it against his heart. “I live on in you, and Edward…” Edward, their boy with his mother’s grey eyes and father’s blonde curls, the future King of England. “You must be strong for him, for he has a great purpose…”

“Wife, stop talking like that…” He stood from his chair and walked to the other side of her deathbed, lying next to her. “Our son needs his mother, our country needs its Queen… and I need my wife.”

She tried to smile as he held her. She listened as he prayed, slipping in and out of consciousness, for her life. “Please…” she heard him beg. “Please don’t take her; she is the light in my dark life, the warmth in my cold world. She is the very breath in my lungs. Lord, do not take her from me…”

In her final moments, Katniss found the strength to look in the King’s eyes. She knew her time had come, her weakened heart fluttering as it struggled to keep her body alive. “Never forget, my love for you…” she whispered before her hand went limp in his.

Days later, Peeta walked around his wife’s casket. He couldn’t bring himself to kneel beside her and say his final goodbyes. He thought of his motherless son, his empty bed and hallow heart. Finally, he fell to his knees by her head. “My darling… One day, I will lay beside you again…” he told her. “I promise. And we shall sleep together for eternity…”

_Here lieth a Phoenix, by whose death_

_Another Phoenix life gave breath:_

_It is to be lamented much_

_The world at once ne'er knew two such._

Years later, Peeta kept his promise to lay beside Katniss and sleep with her for all eternity.


End file.
